Baylor senior Brady Heslip and Iowa State senior Melvin Ejim will play for their native Canada in the upcoming Men’s World University Games. Canada’s 12-member Development Men’s National Team roster was announced by Canada Basketball.

A Burlington, Ontario, native, Heslip is the ninth player in Baylor history to play for a national team while in college. He joins Aaron Bruce, who represented Australia in 2005 and 2006, as the only Bears to play for a country other than the United States. Ejim, a native of Toronto, is the fourth Iowa State player to participate in the World University Games. He joins Victor Alexander (United States, 1989), Craig Brackins (United States, 2009) and Lucca Staiger (Germany, 2009).

The duo will face fellow Big 12 standout Cory Jefferson (Baylor), who is on the United States squad, when Canada plays USA on July 12. Canada’s other games in the preliminary round are against Sweden on July 7, United Arab Emirates on July 8, Australia on July 10 and Czech Republic on July 11.

The World University Games will be played in Kazan, Russia. Canada’s squad is coached by Jay Triano, who is Heslip’s uncle and is an assistant coach for the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers. He’s assisted by Greg Francis (Alberta), John Campbell (Toronto) and Shawn Swords (Laurentian).

“Our student team has done well in their preparations thus far under the leadership of Jay Triano and his staff,” said Rowan Barrett, assistant general manager of the Senior Men’s Program. “We look forward to our team being very competitive in representing Canada with great pride on the international stage.”

ESPNU will televise Canada’s game against the USA, which tips off at 4:00 a.m. CT on July 12. Replays will be shown later that day at 6 p.m. and again on July 13 at 2:30 a.m. The top two teams in each of the four pools advance to the quarterfinals, which begin July 14, while the remaining 16 teams will compete for ninth through 24th place.

Canada World University Games Schedule

Sunday, July 7 – SwedenMonday, July 8 – United Arab EmiratesWednesday, July 10 – AustraliaThursday, July 11 – Czech RepublicFriday, July 12 – United States